Publisher's Weekly Review
James H. Cobb is no Robert Ludlum. Although he wasn't a great prose stylist, Ludlum (who died in 2001) could keep a story engine churning like nobody's business. Compared to him, Cobb is a plodding, mechanical, cliche-ridden hired hand. And Jeff Woodman can't do much to make things more exciting-or even interesting-as he reads this tangled tale. Woodman has the vocal talents necessary to make the third-person narration work, and he does his best to create believable voices for the male and female members of a search team and their villainous adversaries-Russians, North Koreans and private mercenaries. But Cobb undercuts him at virtually every turn, the story moving like sticky syrup as a top secret Covert-One team of specialists hunt for a crashed WWII bomber and a deadly toxin that could destroy all life on the planet. Simultaneous release with the Grand Central paperback. (Sept.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Guardian Review
Robert Ludlum died in 2001, so what is his name doing, three and a half inches high, on the cover of this book? The answer is that the plot is based on Ludlum's idea of the Covert-One organisation, the personal action arm of the US president, and the activities of series hero Colonel Jon Smith. But all this doesn't really matter if the thriller, written by James Cobb, is any good - which it certainly is. The wreck of an old Russian bomber has been discovered on an Arctic island and, the Russians reveal, it is laden with two tons of anthrax. Smith leads an expedition to neutralise the threat, but there are other nefarious interests at work too, not to mention a traitor on the team and a villainous arms dealer who wants the anthrax. But an even greater terror threatens to engulf the world in a new and unprecedented conflict. Caption: article-lewincol20.4 Robert Ludlum died in 2001, so what is his name doing, three and a half inches high, on the cover of this book? - Matthew Lewin.
